CT Senate Candidate Murphy 'Jobs Plan': Tax the Rich

In an interview on Thursday, Democratic Senate candidate Chris Murphy (D-WFP), said, “I represent my state, I don’t represent my party.” Murphy, however, who is locked in a tight race in Connecticut against GOP candidate Linda McMahon, votes with his party 93% of the time and most often votes with Connecticut colleague Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-WFP).

Espousing traditional liberal themes, Murphy seems to be attempting both to draw sympathy and to apologize for the fact that his was a race that, by most accounts, was supposed to be a shoo-in for the Democrats. Murphy said that he doesn’t have the money wealthy McMahon has to spend on advertising, but that he does have the right message and enthusiastic supporters.

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“Linda McMahon is spending a fortune trying to buy this election, and there’s no way around the fact that her money is going to have an effect in this race,” Murphy stated. “We think ultimately that the enthusiasm of our supporters and the big differences between Ms. McMahon and I on the issues and in our backgrounds will make the difference. But given the fact that Linda McMahon has outspent us by a minimum of a five-to-one margin, it’s no surprise that the race is so close.”

Responding to McMahon’s charge that he has no plan to create jobs, Murphy said, “She knows I have a jobs plan and that I held a major press conference in June announcing it.”

Murphy’s “jobs plan” sounds like the talking points heard from the Obama campaign and every other liberal Democrat running for office. This is the same “jobs plan” that was touted four years ago by Barack Obama, and that has led us to high levels of unemployment and double the number of Americans on food stamps.

As expected, Murphy’s “jobs plan” starts with raising taxes on the wealthy and small business owners, aka the job creators. Murphy says that revenue from raising taxes on those making $250,000 per year and over, will pay down the national debt, be invested in education in general, and make college more affordable. This seems like a tall order for not that much revenue in general.

Murphy’s “jobs plan” includes many heard-it-all-before ideas that do nothing except highlight that he, like Barack Obama, doesn’t understand how the economy works. The senate candidate says he will call for more investment in developing renewable energy to make us energy independent. So, it would appear he’s in favor of more Solyndras.

At the same time, Murphy voted against the Keystone Pipeline, and, consequently all the jobs that could deliver. The candidate said he would end tax breaks for companies that “ship jobs overseas.” This is the Democratic Party way: punish entrepreneurs who can have products made more cheaply overseas, while supporting the overbearing EPA regulations that prevent the same entrepreneurs from keeping jobs within the United States.

And, like Barack Obama, Murphy keeps stressing manufacturing jobs. Okay, that’s good, but what if you don’t work in the manufacturing field?

Like others in Congress, Murphy talks about investing (i.e., spending) in infrastructure, education, and renewable energy, but when asked how he would pay for these “investments,” he immediately returns to “the wealthy.”

“Tax policy matters in this country,” he says. “When the federal government is giving massive tax cuts to the wealthy, that money is by and large not finding its way into our economy. It’s been proven over and over again that tax cuts for the wealthy do not create jobs, and if the federal government continues to deficit-spend in the way that it has, it creates a real crisis of confidence among investors that are thinking about putting money into the American economy.”

Besides dismissing the Reagan and Clinton years, when tax cuts did lead to lower levels of unemployment, Murphy’s “plan” has already been disproven in his own state of Connecticut. His governor, Dannel Malloy (D-WFP), gave the citizens of his state the largest tax hike in its history, yet today, Connecticut is just four months into the fiscal year and is already $60.1 million in the red, while its “official” unemployment rate is now 8.9%.

Given what Connecticut citizens have already been through on a state level, why would they want to send Murphy to Washington to be their senator?